New Sugar Land pizza restaurant with Chicago ties makes a surprise splash: And this is no tourist spot

New Sugar Land pizza restaurant with Chicago ties a surprise splash

Demarco Jenkins opened D'Marcos Pizzeria to satisfy his cravings for Chicago-style pizza.Photo by Eric Sandler

Jenkins will serve this chicken caprese pizza at a competition in Vegas.Photo by Eric Sandler

Although it's only been open since June, D'Marcos Pizzeria in Sugar Land is already making a splash. Inspired by Chicago pizzeria Mama Rigetta's, D'Marcos serves both a traditional Chicago-style pan crust and a deep dish.

That's right: Thin crust.

According to owner Demarco Jenkins, "People in Chicago mostly eat thin crust. I think deep dish pizza is for tourists." Jenkins should know. He moved to Houston from Chicago in 2012 and only decided to go into the pizza business after he couldn't find an acceptable pie in his new hometown.

In desperation, he wrote to the owners of Mama Rigetta's and asked them to sell him their recipes. To his surprise, mama and papa, as Jenkins calls them, gave them to him free of charge. A well-timed layoff helped motivate Jenkins to make the jump from engineering to pizza making.

He moved to Houston from Chicago in 2012 and only decided to go into the pizza business after he couldn't find an acceptable pie in his new hometown.

Jenkins says he follows the recipes to the letter. Although he's turned over the pizza making to a team of cooks, he still makes the dough by hand every day.

The restaurant also makes the chicken sausage that features in pizzas Jenkins will enter into two contests: The Pizza Pizzazz competition at NAPIC in February and the International Pizza Challenge at the Pizza Expo in March.

Pizzas are traditionally topped with pork, but Jenkins says he doesn't dig on swine. Chicken is his animal protein of choice. D'Marcos sells pepperoni and pork sausage, but keeps its halal chicken separate.

Whether those practices would meet with the approval of Zain's Halal Reviews is up to the blogger, but Jenkins's consideration of his customer's dietary preferences does speak to the spirit of hospitality that pervades D'Marcos.

So far, things are going well. A sign out front advertised hiring of additional delivery drivers, and Jenkins is scouting for a second location. For now, the curious will have to head to Sugar Land to see what the pizza engineers does with those old recipes.